Post by D6 on Nov 13, 2023 5:41:05 GMT -5
Thoughts in ****
Instant observations: Jared Goff leads Lions past L.A. in wild shootout
Instant observations: Jared Goff leads Lions past L.A. in wild shootout
Updated: Nov. 12, 2023, 8:45 p.m.|Published: Nov. 12, 2023, 7:17 p.m.
Detroit Lions at Los Angeles Chargers: Week 10Benjamin Raven
By Kyle Meinke | kmeinke@mlive.com
INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- Touchdown. Touchdown. Touchdown. Touchdown. Touchdown. That’s how the Los Angeles Chargers finished this game.
Somehow, some freaking way, the Detroit Lions won anyway.
**** The Lions Offense bailed out the Lions Defense. This was close to the opposite of the Lions game against the Raiders. ****
And in his return to a place that once ran him out of town, Jared Goff was that freaking way.
Goff threw touchdown passes to Amon-Ra St. Brown and Brock Wright for go-ahead scores in the second half, and when Los Angeles battled back to force a third tie in the final 4 minutes of the game, Goff ensured Justin Herbert didn’t touch the rock again by leading a nine-play drive that milked every last second off the clock. Riley Patterson knocked in the 41-yard winner at the horn, then was hoisted into the air by teammates as the Lions celebrated a wild 41-38 shootout win over the Chargers -- and thousands of fans joined in so loudly, you’d have been excused for thinking this game was played 2,000 miles northeast of SoFi Stadium.
**** Jared Goff had a great game. The same with Amon-Ra St. Brown. The Lions Offensive Line was the biggest difference in the Lions win. While the Lions did a good overall job run blocking, the pass blocking was as good as I can recall by the Lions in ANY game, in any season!!!. Tremendous pass blocking performance!!! ****
Detroit once held a 17-3 lead thanks to back-to-back touchdown runs by Jahmhr Gibbs, who combined with David Montgomery to pile up 200 yards on the ground. But the Lions struggled to pull away thanks to more issues in the red zone, where they turned over the ball on downs and had a touchdown nullified by a Taylor Decker penalty.
**** The Taylor Decker penalty was either borderline or close to it. That certainly led to the end of the Lions first drive, which resulted in a FG.
The Lions Red Zone struggles on the drive the Lions failed on 4th Down is concerning, with the Lions Red Zone problems carrying over, despite the Offense being relatively healthy for this game. ****
Then Herbert caught fire, while Keenan Allen became unstoppable, and Los Angeles reeled off five straight touchdown drives to finish the game, knotting the score three times along the way.
**** The Lions Defense made too many mistakes, didn't generate enough of a pass rush on the 5 combined LA Chargers TD drives, and high level play, especially from Justin Herbert and Keenan Allen (in addition to the Chargers pass blocking). ****
St. Brown provided the first answer, scorching through the defense for a 20-yard catch-and-run touchdown at the end of the third quarter. Then after another L.A. touchdown, Goff feathered a perfect 25-yard touchdown strike to Brock Wright, a backup tight end who is mostly known for his role as a blocker.
**** Very good catch by Amon-Ra St. Brown on the 20 yard TD reception, as the ball was thrown pretty low. Josh Reynolds and Taylor Decker made key blocks on the play.
Great all around execution on the play action TD pass to Brock Wright.****
Then when Allen tied up the game once again with 3:34 left, Goff ran back onto the field and cooly hooked up with Kalif Raymond for a 41-yard pass on the very first play from scrimmage. That gave Detroit the ball at Los Angeles’ 35-yard line, right at the cusp of Riley Patterson’s field-goal range.
**** Great play call by Ben Johnson on the play action pass to Kalif Raymond and great execution, including the play action fake itself. ****
After David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs lost 4 yards on consecutive plays -- knocking Detroit back out of that range -- St. Brown came up clutch again by grabbing a 12-yard pass near the sideline on third down. Facing a fourth-and-2, Detroit could have kicked a 43-yard field goal to take the lead. But with 1:47 left -- and nothing stopping the Los Angeles Chargers for the better part of three quarters -- Dan Campbell elected to keep the offense on the field for a monumental fourth down.
**** Dan Campbell made the right decision. The Lions Defense couldn't be remoted trusted after giving up TDs on 5 consecutive drives. ****
He told Jared Goff to go win the game. And that’s exactly what the former Rams quarterback did, in the same stadium where he was once benched by Sean McVay and eventually sent packing to Detroit.
Goff worked through his progessions, going from Jahmyr Gibbs to Sam LaPorta to a wide receiver, then finally back to LaPorta, all while the rush was bearing down in his face. And Goff fired a strike to the rookie tight end for a 6-yard gain.
**** The pass protection was good, as Jared Goff had time to look at many progressions on the play. Goff, the Lions Offensive Line, and Sam LaPorta all did a great job on the play. LaPorta looked like a seasoned veteran in finding an opening in the zone, and settling down in the opening. ****
After three kneel-downs, Patterson came on the field and finally finished off Los Angeles for good.
**** Riley Patterson came through in the clutch. The snap, hold, and kick was in essence perfect, which was the case on the Lions first FG, and 5 PATs, as well. With a different Long Snapper, this couldn't remotely be taken for granted. ****
The Lions improve to 7-2, their best nine-game start since 2014. They maintain a 1.5-game lead over the red-hot Minnesota Vikings (6-4) in the NFC North, and pull within one game of idle Philadelphia for the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
Detroit now heads back home for a two-game homestand against NFC North rivals Chicago and Green Bay.
**** The Lions have serious competition from the Vikings in the NFC North. The divisional games are that much more critical for the Lions. ****
Let’s get to some more observations:
-- Running back David Montgomery earned the start over Jahmyr Gibbs in his return from injury, but Gibbs showed why the Lions remain so committed to keeping him involved despite the return of Detroit’s top back. Gibbs really flourished during the veteran’s absence the last two games, accounting for 315 yards from scrimmage -- a league high during that stretch -- and wasted no time taking over this game too. On the second series of the game, Gibbs ran four times for 52 yards, including a 35-yarder where he was pushed out of bounds just shy of the goal line, then a 1-yard scoring strike where he outflanked the Chargers defense with his world-class speed. Gibbs added another goal-line touchdown on a big fourth-down play before halftime, offering yet more evidence that he’s more than a pure slasher. This guy can pound too, and coming off a fourth-down failure at the goal line, the Lions trusted Gibbs on another fourth-down play at the goal line. There was a lot of hand-wringing over that pick at 12th overall, but paired with the compensation they got in the trade back -- Sam LaPorta, who already is the best rookie tight end in franchise history -- Detroit has added two big pieces that will be around for years to come.
**** The Lions are certainly benefitting greatly by having both Jahmyr Gibbs and Sam LaPorta. ****
Of course, Montgomery had his moments too, none bigger than a 75-yard touchdown run before the end of the first half. Detroit had 176 yards rushing in the first half overall, the first time they’ve had at least 175 yards on the ground and three touchdowns in a half since Nov. 24, 1991, against Minnesota, and the second time in franchise history. It finished with 200 rushing yards overall, the best performance yet from one of the league’s best ground games. And with the offensive line finally intact ahead of them, even better days could be ahead.
**** Tremendous long TD run by David Montgomery, right after the Chargers had their 1st TD. Jameson Williams made a heck of a difference making block on the play, with his speed and hustle being on display.****
-- Amon-Ra St. Brown left California as a really good college receiver who plummeted to the final day of the draft. He returned as one of the best receivers in the NFL, and made the Chargers pay with eight catches for 156 yards and one big touchdown in the third quarter. The Chargers had just erased a 14-3 deficit by going on a 21-7 run that knotted the game at 24-all. Then St. Brown went to work, getting loose for a 33-yard catch on third down, then coming back on the very next play and taking a short pass at the line of scrimmage to the house. St. Brown now joins Calvin Johnson and Herman Moore as the only players in franchise history with four straight 100-yard games. Hey, that’s pretty good company.
**** Amon-Ra St. Brown is already one of the Lions best WRs in Franchise History. ****
-- Cam Sutton has been Detroit’s best cornerback this year, and Detroit tried to have him follow Keenan Allen all day. Los Angeles did a good job moving Allen away from Sutton with motion, but Sutton was flagged twice for pass interference on key plays during a game-tying drive in the fourth quarter. The first was obvious, and it came on third-and-12. That’s brutal. The second was less obvious, and perhaps even questionable. Either way, it came on a fourth-and-goal stop in the end zone. That gave L.A. new life once again, and on third-and-inches, Justin Herbert found Quinton Johnston streaking across the back of the end zone for the score. That tied the game at 21-all with about 11 minutes left, and set up a climactic finish to a back-and-forth finish.
****Cam Sutton didn't have close to his best game, though he still helped break up a pass by getting good depth in zone coverage, and he made an excellent tackle in the backfield in the 4th QTR on a quick outside pass.
The Lions stopped the Chargers on a 3rd and Inches running play, with Aidan Hutchinson destroying the play. The 4th and goal from the Lions 1 situation, the 2nd consecutive 4th and Goal play, was the Quinton Johnston TD reception. ****
-- Jameson Williams is still waiting for his breakout game as a pass-catcher, but my goodness can the kid block. He had a big one that sprung David Montgomery for a touchdown in his first game of the season, and added two more on Montgomery’s biggest touchdown run of the season, a 75-yarder where Williams took out his first man near the line of scrimmage, then blazed down the field to catch up to Montgomery and take out the final Chargers defender in their way. Williams finished with just two catches for 18 yards, but like his coaches say, “No block, no rock.” He’s clearly a plus blocker at this early juncture of his career. The Lions are still waiting on the rock part to come together.
**** Jameson Williams' TD run was erased by the questionable illegal block penalty on Taylor Decker. Williams made a pretty difficult catch in this game coming back for the ball. I think he's making progress. ****
-- After going without an interception in the first seven games of the season, Kerby Joseph now has one in each of the last two. He caught a gimmie from Jimmy Garoppolo in the end zone against Las Vegas on Monday Night Football, then had perhaps the best pick of the season in Los Angeles, tapping both feet with just a sliver of grass between his cleat and the white line. On a day where Herbert would become unstoppable -- L.A. scored touchdowns on all but one series the rest of the way -- the takeaway was a huge one that helped Detroit build an early 14-point lead.
**** The interception was a terrific play by Kerby Joseph. On the downside, his tackling needs to be better than it was in this game. ****
-- Jared Goff finished 23 of 33 passing for 333 yards, two touchdowns, no picks and a passer rating of 122.4 -- a better-rated game than any of the ones he played in this building for the Rams. While the run game led the way throughout the first half, Goff’s steady play was required to keep up in the track meet that developed in the second half, and while he wasn’t quite as good as Herbert, he answered every strike with a counterstrike of his own. It says a lot that when Detroit could have kicked a go-ahead field goal in the final 2 minutes, Dan Campbell trusted Goff with a fourth-and-2 play instead that, if it worked, would ultimately kill L.A.’s chances right there. And that’s exactly what Goff did, working through four progressions before delivering a perfect ball to LaPorta across the middle for 6 yards. Ballgame.
**** Dan Campbell and Ben Johnson trusted Jared Goff and he came through on the Lions most important Offensive play of the game. It was great to see Goff have a great performance in SoFi Stadium! ****
-- While there’s so much to feel good about, not the least of which is a seventh win in nine games that keeps Detroit ahead of the red-hot Vikings, there are concerns on the defensive side. They pressured Justin Herbert early, but were fileted through the air in the second half and had no answers for Keenan Allen at all. Detroit allowed 421 yards of offense, and five straight touchdowns to end the game. That’s the second time in three games that Aaron Glenn’s defense was picked apart by an elite quarterback. The good news is the Lions won’t see another guy as good as Herbert in the regular season. The bad news, of course, is the quarterbacking that awaits them in the playoffs. Glenn has two months to find answers, because he had none for Lamar Jackson and Justin Herbert.
**** Aaron Glenn had answers for Justin Herbert until around the middle of the 2nd QTR. Much like with the Lions Red Zone problems on both sides of the ball, the good news is the Lions Defense will the opportunity to learn from mistakes following a win. ****
............
This new thread is a continuation of the following thread:
Lions at LA Chargers preview: Game # 13 ( 2023 )
detroit-lions-forum.proboards.com/thread/1938/lions-chargers-preview-game-2023